Interview: Roy Molloy (Alex Cameron) Speaks With D.C. Maxwell

Only two sleeps to go before Australian sensations Alex Cameron and Roy Molloy return to Aotearoa, playing as a duo in Tāmaki Makaurau and Pōneke with special guest D.C. Maxwell for both headline dates. Praised by Rolling Stone for his 2023 debut album Lone Rider, D.C. Maxwell spoke with saxophonist Molloy about his close creative and business partnership with Cameron, provocative public statements, and exactly what fans can look forward to at this weekend's gigs — joined at Hollywood Avondale by drums / guitar dynamos Elliot and Vincent...

Alex Cameron & Roy Molloy
with special guest D.C. Maxwell

Friday 2nd February - Hollywood Avondale, Auckland w/ Elliot and Vincent
Saturday 3rd February - Meow, Wellington

Auckland tickets on sale HERE via UTR

D.C. Maxwell: Okay Roy, I’m starting off with a big one. And I don't want any dodging the question here. So Hall & Oates have been having some beef and Daryl Hall has come out and said that John Oates is not his creative partner, but his business associate. How do you feel about Hall & Oates jacking your swag?

Roy Molloy: First things first, if me and Alex ever fall apart, it's not going to be like a fucking episode of Succession. There'll be no court case. You know, it'd be more like the movie Casino or something, like bodies in the back of the car.

And secondly; yeah. I love that news. Alex and I are literally business partners, even before we are creative partners. The creative partnership kind of overtook the business partnership, so yeah it’s like the reverse of what’s going on with Hall & Oates.

Do you want to talk a little bit about the tour you've gone on? Sorry that's such a stupid generic question.

Not at all, I love generic questions as I’ve always got the answers at hand.

The tour we've just been on has been fantastic. I mean, for Alex and I, flying from the US to Australia is pretty costly. But we do want to see our mums and dads and our families. We've made this habit of booking a summer tour in Australia.

This time around we wanted to not just play the major cities and instead we wanted to grow our fanbase a little bit, and go a slightly more regional. It's been kind of nice to go out there and just front them face to face, outside of the major cities and meet people face to face. Well, that was the beautiful thing. Some shows I was able to go and introduce myself to people one by one. I know from them telling me that we got some new fans there.

That's awesome. Old school. The way things used to be before ‘digiclicks’ and ‘heart-follows’ and whatever. Speaking of fans, I came across the concept of like, the Roy Squad, and call me foolish, but could you explain what this is to the uninitiated?

There's already some Roy Squad Splinter Cells in various parts of New Zealand.

But the Roy Squad started as a hashtag to describe a certain type of fan of Alex's music. It’s probably only about one in every hundred, but when they look and see the two of us, they will look at me and say, “You know what, actually, I think this guy's the guy.”

While other people came up with the term Roy Squad, obviously I propagated it. I loved it. I was so flattered. Yeah. Everyone wants a squad. And I got one now, and that's beautiful.

Now the editor of UTR, Chris Cudby, he really pressured me to ask you about your fitness routine and how you keep in shape on tour.

Oh, I've got a new addition to the routine. It's all about the stretch band for me right now.

Whack this thing around a doorframe, and I'll do like twenty curls as though you had a barbell. I’ll also do like twenty squats. The thinking of a squat being that it's nice to push the chemicals from your ass up into your brain. You know what I mean?

Exactly. What are chemicals gonna do down there in your ass?

They will just be down there being useless, that testosterone needs to go to the mind. Other than that, I'm just cranking out twenty push ups, take a good hard look in the mirror, then maybe a bit of shadow boxing.

Is Alex getting involved in any of this? Or is he just watching from the hotel bed?

[Laughs] Alex actually does often look on as I pump invisible iron. But he's got a very different workout regime to me. That involves, you know, empty suitcases and things like that. It's very complicated. I can’t go too into it.
 

No worries, you gotta keep the mystery alive. I’ve also seen on this tour you've been doing stool reviews, what has been the best stool so far?

The run of shows so far on this tour have seen some fantastic stools. Australia does kind of lean towards the four / five to steel stackable barstool square format. I'm sure you've seen a few of them. But the most exciting stool that I've come across was a replica stool. I picked this stool up, it looked normal but it felt a little strange to tap and it felt a little odd because it's made normally of a composite aluminium material. Yeah, I lifted it up and had a look on the underside and I'd been given a fake stool.

Jesus Christ! For a professional stool hound like yourself that's gonna be a slap in the face.

I didn't even know that you could even do that. I didn't know that there was such a thing as a replica stool you know what I mean?

Was it like a WWE stool that was gonna crack when you smashed on someone?

Maybe, but at the end of the day it was steady and stable.

I looked at your incredible Twitter and for some reason it gave me this big random mix of all the tweets you made in the last five years, out of order. So I don't know if you are going to like this game, but I thought I could read these tweets back to you and you could say if you stand by them still?

This is my nightmare but yes, let's do it.

Okay, tweet number one: “I never made a perfect phone call in my life. Fucked up on every single one.”

I stand by that completely. Other than right now this phone call feels perfect. But later on, during my dark night of the soul, I will think differently.

The only thing that's not feeling good for me is I'm sweating a lot.

My pits are like a swamp right now. Don't worry about it. We're simpatico in that regard.

Hahaha thank god. Tweet number two: “There are only three requirements to be Roy Squad: One, respect yourself. Two, respect others. Three, stick up for me in conversations.”

Absolutely true. If you ever hear anyone just conversationally, maybe saying some shit about me that doesn't sound positive. You don't have to do anything crazy, but just use your personality. Use your eye contact and see if you can just move it around. Take my side. But be respectful as well.

Tweet three: “Everyone's out here paying attention to Kanye and his dumb crap tweets. Meanwhile, I'm out here delivering daily street knowledge for paltry retweets and favs.”

I have no problem with Kanye. I mean, he's a great artist, but you know, back in that moment, I did genuinely think that I was doing better tweets than him.

Okay, last one: “I am ready to host the Oscars.”

When the hell did I say that?

I think that was like 2018?

That's great. I am 100% ready to host the Oscars, I think. I don't know what I would say. But I'd hope for it to be memorable.

You'd be bloody incredible. Imagine you're coming down the stairs doing like a Billy Crystal singing introduction number.

Yes, yes. Yes. Yes. Like a talk sing. Hell yeah.

I think this is a good place to finish. What is your advice for the public of New Zealand on what to expect at these upcoming shows?

Well firstly, we've got a triple bill. We've got some serious artists in Auckland and Wellington. So get down early. That's step one, it's going to be a full evening of music.

Number two, it is the duo show. It's just me in Al-Cam, and we haven't got the band this time around. And I don't think New Zealand have seen us in that format before. This is a show that me and Alex have been doing since 2012. Obviously, we've got more music now. But this is us in our natural environment.

This is like when the eagle sweeps down and takes a field mouse. What we'll be doing will involve that level of instinct...

Hmm... I made it sound like I was going to give three things... Oh yeah! It's the weekend in New Zealand and it's going to be red hot. So dress nice, but keep it loose. And in my experience, our New Zealand shows have been heavy drinking affairs. So just keep an eye on your friends. Make sure everyone's doing cool.

D.C. Maxwell's debut album ‘Lone Rider’ is out now via Danger Collective — vinyl LP orders available HERE.